Danny Brooks

Name: Daniel “Danny” Brooks

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: 12th

School: Cochise High School

Hobbies and Interests: Dancing, particularly ballet and hip hop, football, anime and manga, drawing, world-building

Appearance: 5'8” and 158lbs, Danny is an African-American with a decent amount of leaner muscle due to dancing and football. He has coarse, short black hair that tends to fluff upwards of its own accord. His eyes are dark brown and almond-shaped. He has thick eyebrows, a broad nose and a triangular jawline. He's vain about his appearance and tries to take care of it, particularly where his teeth are concerned. He grows stubble fast, but tries to stay clean-shaven.

Danny usually wears fitting or sleeveless t-shirts in order to show off, either jeans or pants that are made out of flexible materials so they don't tear while he's dancing, and shoes with Velcro instead of shoelaces. He generally wears darker colours. On the day of the abduction, he was wearing a fitting black t-shirt, jeans and black sneakers with white stripes on the side.

Biography: Danny is part of a family of four, consisting of his father Jeremy, his mother Dana and his identical twin brother, Jacob. Jeremy is a used car salesman while Dana stays at home.

Danny's father, Jeremy, is a football enthusiast who attempted to live through his children by shaping them into footballers. He tried to raise his sons to love the sport, and from a young age often dragged them into afternoon 'father-son' activities where they'd watch it on the television.

For this reason, he also enrolled them in ballet classes at an early age to help their balance. It backfired somewhat, as instead of preparing them for football it got them both obsessed with dancing. Danny loved ballet because it felt free, was a good outlet for energy and, most importantly, he was good at it and people acknowledged that.

Danny developed an interest in football, as per the original intent, but it was never as strong as his love of dance. His interest in playing football mostly centered around the fact that it involved a lot of people cheering him on if he did it well. This was something he thrived on.

Danny, like many children, watched a lot of cartoons growing up, and had a particularly invested interest in shows like Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh, as well as other anime. This interest stuck as he got older, and expanded into anime and manga in general instead of just the shows he managed to catch before and after school.

As Danny got older and perceived it as a thing only nerds and uncool people liked he concealed his interest in it from anyone else. Any belongings associated with it, such as his old Digimon DVDs, are kept where no-one can find them. Most of his interest is only shared with people over the internet, where he could share his interest anonymously among similar-minded people, and he mostly watches and reads new things through sites and downloads so he can easily hide it. He has a particular interest in fantasy or action-orientated shows and comics, and tends to prefer those with lighter, more optimistic themes.

Spurred by his interest in anime and manga, Danny started trying to draw his own, although he is regularly discouraged by the fact that his attempts never come out right. He will often drop drawing for weeks after a particularly bad attempt, but will always try it again once the disappointment has worn off. He hides away any attempts at his own comics away, but still has a tendency to doodle in his school books rather than paying attention in class.

Danny often attempts writing stories into his comics, but he regularly forgets the plot he was going for in favor of focusing on random details of the world. Danny has multiple folders full of scraps of different worlds he's made up, stashed along with all the other drawings he tries to hide. His worlds and stories tend to run on what he thinks is cool rather than what makes sense, and usually he patchworks in parts of whatever he's watching or reading at the time. The result is usually incoherent, nonsensical worlds with a dozen fragmented plot lines that even he can't understand if he leaves a world alone for too long and forgets the chain of thought that led to it.

From middle school onward, Danny started playing around with different forms of dance besides ballet. He joined a lot of different classes, often for only one or two lessons, and while he enjoyed most of it he had trouble settling on a style to focus on. He eventually developed a preference for hip hop, due to the physical nature of it and how dynamic it is.

Although he does have some consistent interests, Danny's attention is often difficult to hold and he has a very flighty personality. If he's not entertained he will drop an activity almost immediately, and he has a tendency to feel very strongly about something one day and apathetic to it the next.

Danny projects a lot of confidence, but how real the confidence is varies. With anything dancing or sport-related, his confidence level is genuinely high. Anything that requires more thought or finesse tends to leave him insecure. When it comes to anything he's not confident in, such as his drawing skills, he will not reveal that he even attempts it to others, and if forced into a situation where he has to draw near people, such as Art class, he'll wave it off as 'not even trying' even when he was.

Danny is part of the popular crowd, is sociable and has a large amount of friends and acquaintances. He will happily talk to people outside of the popular crowd as long as no-one from the popular crowd who might object is around. He grates on the nerves of some people due to his flightiness and his tendency to not take things seriously. Danny dislikes drama, whether justified or not, and will often try to shake off anything shaping up to be too serious.

Where people are concerned, he has a mixed level of confidence. While he's usually confident that his friends like him, he's also perpetually paranoid about that appreciation going away, and concerned about what any new people think of him, particularly those who are also considered cool. He is susceptible to peer pressure, often agreeing to do stupid things at the suggestion of friends and never calling people out when he thinks they're having a bad idea or doing something wrong, because he hates disappointing people and fears that they'll stop talking to him if he does so.

He's rather double-sided in terms of how he'll talk about people, because he will often at least fake agreement when around kids insulting other kids, then be nice to their faces in order to attempt to try and make sure everyone likes him. He will not actively insult people to their faces, at most only lingering awkwardly behind someone or trying to slip away while they do so.

Danny has a lot of concern with being perceived as cool, but it's often trumped by being seen as good at something. Hence why, despite the potential stigma of being associated with ballet, he still continues to do so. The admiration of people who know how hard ballet is is far more valuable than the possible derision of those who think less of it.

Though not intentionally a player, Danny tends to be rather flighty when it comes to girls and has gained the reputation of one due to how quickly he gets infatuated and how insensitively he dumps them. He will become infatuated with a girl, ask her out, date her for a short time, rarely surpassing the one month mark, before reconsidering and deciding he's not into her. He also hates confrontation and so tends to break up with girls using text messages or other indirect means. He has left a string of angry ex-girlfriends behind him. If a girl rejects him straight away, something that is becoming more common now that his flighty nature is well-known, or if she does the dumping, he'll generally mope quietly for a couple of days and then get over it.

Despite his tendency to flirt and being into the love side of things, Danny is asexual and thinking about being involved in sex or anything too sexual makes him uncomfortable. He hasn't realised he's asexual, as he has no concept of the difference between romantic and sexual orientation, and is currently very confused. He tends to avoid thinking about it if possible. On the occasion that a girl tries to push things further than what he's comfortable with, he will usually make a transparent excuse to leave and break up with her the next day via text message. His tendency to do this has started to circulate around the school due to a girl telling her friends about it. Some assume he is gay and trying to hide it because of this, and Danny's confusion over his repulsion has led him to wonder if this is the case, but he's exclusively into girls.

As of a confrontation with one of his ex-girlfriends, Fiyori Senay, he has become more aware of how his tendency to dump girls in indirect ways leaves a lot of hurt behind and that apologising is a far better idea than running from every girl he's ever dumped. He is currently considering trying to make things right with them all and not be so callous in the future, but whether he'll hold to this has yet to be seen.

Danny doesn't like people to know if he's upset or gloomy. His jokes tend to increase if he's feeling gloomy and on those days he's often more aggressively cheerful than normal. This occurs if a friend has done something that upset him, and so often they don't realise they've done anything.

Danny does not place much value on study and isn't able to stomach sitting still for too long focusing on something that disinterests him. He maintains a B- average largely by borrowing school notes from his friends, although he's good at P.E since it's all physical, and he pays attention in Art and gets decent grades there, even if he likes to pretend he wasn't trying. Although he doesn't like many of his classes much, he particularly dislikes Math because it's harder to bluff his way through if he doesn't understand it.

Danny does both ballet and football as extracurricular activities. Danny plays on the school football team and enjoys the energy and the people cheering. As he's faster than he is strong, Danny plays in the wide receiver position. He also works a part-time job as a cashier at the Diamondback Ice Cream Parlor, although he's on the brink of getting fired due to often arriving late.

Danny has no real interest in college, but his father often pushes him to work harder at football so he can get into a college football team. Danny is applying for various teams but his interest wanes in and out. He has no plans for what he actually wants to study, and just goes in the direction his father pushes him in. He often considers dropping college entirely in favor of doing something dance-related, but never goes through with it. He is applying mostly to colleges in larger cities, as he's lived in Kingman all his life and would like to live somewhere he perceives as more exciting.

Danny's relationship with his father is good, as they bond over a mutual love of football. Danny and his twin brother, Jacob, both perceive Danny as the favourite due to more similar interests, and Jeremy does spend more time with Danny. Danny has a decent relationship with his mother, too, but they have a lot less common ground and she's more strict with him, as his father tends to wave off a lot of Danny's rule-breaking, such as breaking curfew, with 'boys will be boys.'

Danny and Jacob engage in a lot of light-hearted teasing at each other and a lot of clashing due to their dissimilar personalities. Because Jacob is more of a loner and sometimes viewed as odd, Danny is not above outwardly agreeing with the milder disparaging comments about his brother being strange. Some jealousy also tints their relationship because as they got older Jacob became better at ballet than him, which occasionally causes strain. However, they do care for each other and any outright bullying or particularly vicious insults towards his brother is one of the few things Danny will intervene in, though he typically does so while trying not to sound like he's taking sides.

Advantages: Danny is sociable and has a lot of friends, which will make it much easier to find allies among the students. Due to his dancing and football activities he's fitter and more nimble than a lot of his classmates, meaning he's more likely to win in a fight and has a better chance of evading someone who's after him.

Disadvantages: Danny has a tendency to shun or avoid considering serious situations and is likely to go into a state of denial involving the seriousness of his situation. He avoids taking initiative in a situation if there's possible consequences for getting it wrong, and easily caves in to peer pressure. He's upset a lot of people in the past, particularly past girlfriends, which might affect his chances at allies.

Designated Number: Male student No. 020

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Designated Weapon: Portable CD player with batteries

Conclusion: At least B020 will be able to dance to some music, I have a song recommendation for him as well. Coffinfeeder. - Josie Knight

'The above biography is as written by Violent Medic. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Violent Medic

Kills: None

Killed By: Isabel Ramirez

Collected Weapons: Portable CD player with batteries (assigned weapon)

Allies: Bridgette Sommerfeld

Enemies: None

Mid-game Evaluation: Danny immediately started out in denial, and tossed on some seaweed to play a prank on Jeremy Frasier and Irene Djezari. Irene was also in denial, so Jeremy tried and failed to get them both to see reason. Irene fired her gun to prove her point, but instead proved the gun was real and Danny quickly panicked, pulling at his collar to confirm their reality to himself. Irene ran off shortly after, and Danny was more inclined to follow her than Jeremy but he quickly lost her and ended up in the asylum. He found the supply closet.

Inside was Sanford Bricks, and Danny saw the molotov in Sandy's hand and was quick to panic, throwing the DVD player at him. The conflict between the two was brief as Sandy chased Danny around the closet, Audrey Reyes tried to intervene but only Danny was inclined to calm down and apologize. Sandy left in a fury, leaving Audrey and Danny to tend to Alvaro Vacanti, who collapsed from injuries nearby. Danny was hesitant to actually intervene or use his own supplies, and was also hesitant to join up with Audrey when she tried to collect them into an alliance, and he was ultimately left alone to wander off again. He heard the bell rung by Jeremy Frasier but elected to not follow it.

He found the warehouse on the northern side of the island, and a search for supplies turned up soap and towels. He then found Cristo Morales's dead body. Bridgette Sommerfeld found him in turn, and Danny was quick to deny culpability for the death. She believed him, and the two discussed the possibility of an alliance. They ultimately agreed and left, as both were unnerved by the corpse being there. They holed up in the B dorm, keeping watch for each other.

In the morning announcements came on. Knowing who the killers were now the two decided who it was they needed to search for, and also tried to find supplies. After a while searching they hadn't found anything, and Daniel excused himself to use the bathroom. On his way out he ran into Isabel Ramirez. Though Danny knew she was a killer she was civil, and wasn't intent on killing him. However her weapon scared him, and he made a rash decision to remove it from her to assure his safety. This led to Isabel striking him with her sword before he could react, he only managed to call Bridgette for help. She then killed him while he was down, slowly with purposefully non-lethal strikes to his abdomen. He died contemplating his many regrets in life.

Post-Game Evaluation: It turns out G046 is the only girl in B020's short lifespan to have gotten him to stay by her side for an extended period of time. -- Jim Graynolds

Memorable Quotes: " How could I be fine? We’re… we’re gonna fucking die, Bridge! (...) ...This sucks.” -- He calmed slightly after admitting the truth to himself and Bridgette.

"Well, you know. Gotta see the humor in things, right?" -- Trying to casually converse with Isabel. At that point he didn't think it was so funny.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Danny, in chronological order.

Memories: V6 Pregame:
 * Everything You've Always Wanted To Know
 * Having Fun Isn't Hard
 * Ice Cream Truck Beat
 * Tank!

V6:
 * I Say You Kill Your Heroes And Fly, Fly, Baby Don't Cry
 * Hideaway
 * Companion Rectangle
 * Be Prepared

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Danny Brooks. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Frequent usage of very casual language, spoken onomatopoeia, crass language, well paced usage of staccato thoughts. Danny's internal narrative is quite casual, with a lot of call-and-response, back and forth like a conversation is casually taking place in his head. Medic even uses that effect where you actually have a dialogue in the head. In general the devices Medic uses when writing Danny give him a very rich character expressed through his narrative even if it's one of the sparser writing styles of SOTF. A Danny post, when you see it, is always evocative in the narrative and dialogue and gives you a clear sense of, this is Danny, this is the air-headed derp. Danny's personality is interesting to me specifically because I feel like it's one of the personalities that never changed in the long run. Of course he didn't actually live that long anyways, but I feel like his arc on island was a surprisingly effective microcosm of what he was as a character in his profile and pregame. His character, his narrative running and dodging around the big questions, the scary truths of island and presenting us with a perpetually... irreverent tone, is the word I want to go for. He never truly adapted, up until his death, and his death is the logical conclusion of his life. Caused by ill-advised and rash action (and I like how this trait also extends through his island tenure, with Jeremy, with Sandy, with Isabel), ultimately pathetic and he's oh so aware of it, able to regret it as he drifts away. A strong character and strong presentation. -- Cicada Days